This tool provides a simple, user-friendly method to easily generate density-optimized APS layouts for From The Depths.
- Support for 3-clip, 4-clip, and 5-clip APS tetris.
- Automatic turret layout templates (circle with/without center hole, rectangle, or fully custom).
- Hard and soft symmetry enforcement - rotational (90°/180°) and reflexive (vertical/horizontal/quadrants).
- Blueprint file export - export generated layouts directly to
.blueprintprefab files for immediate use in-game, including bottom layer of ejectors and ammo intakes. Choose the resulting prefab height, mapped automatically to the respective blocks, and get total material cost and block count before exporting. - Cooler snake generation - automatically generate a cooler snake to connect loaders while ensuring the correct number of intakes.
- Template cell painting - use click-and-drag to paint blocked or clear cells for custom templates. Painting follows symmetry rules if enabled.
- Multi-solution generation - generate multiple distinct solutions for the same template.
- Selectable target density - choose a desired density target to have the solver aim for, instead of just the optimal solution.
- Experimental early stop heuristic for faster solving (trades a small amount of optimality for significantly reduced solve time in some cases).
Releases are self-contained - no .NET runtime installation required. After installation, updates are delivered automatically.
- Download
APS-Generator-Setup.exefrom the latest release. - Run the installer.
- When Windows shows "Windows protected your PC", click More Info → Run Anyway.
| More Info | Run Anyway |
|---|---|
 |
 |
- The app will install and launch automatically. A desktop shortcut is created.
Why does Windows block the program? The executable is unsigned - it doesn't have a certificate identifying its publisher. This is harmless; Windows just can't verify the source automatically.
- Download
APS-Generator.AppImagefrom the latest release. - Make it executable and run:
chmod +x APS-Generator.AppImage && ./APS-Generator.AppImage
Modern Linux distributions (Arch, Ubuntu, Debian, etc.): for now (may be fixed later), the generated AppImage requires FUSE2. Install it with:
sudo pacman -S fuse2
The app checks for updates automatically on startup. You can configure update behavior in Settings → Application:
- Auto Update - automatically download and apply updates (on by default)
- Receive experimental updates - opt in to prerelease versions
- Show release notes after update - display what's new after updating
Paint (click-and-drag) or toggle cells between blocked and clear for fully custom templates.
Cells follow symmetry rules if enabled.
- Shape - Choose template shape to start from (circle with/without center hole, rectangle).
- Width/Height - Adjust grid dimensions
- Lock - Maintain current aspect ratio when adjusting width/height.
- Paint Mode - Choose between painting blocked cells, clear cells, or individual cell toggling.
- Reset to Template - Reset the grid to the default pattern for the selected shape.
- Tetris Type - Choose between 3-clip, 4-clip, and 5-clip tetris.
- Target Density/Maximize toggle - Set a target density for the solver to aim for, or toggle to maximize density without a specific target.
- Symmetry Type - Options for enforcing solution symmetry: none, reflective (vertical/horizontal/quadrants), or rotational (90°/180°).
- Soft vs Hard Symmetry - Soft symmetry allows asymmetric placements where the symmetric counterpart would be invalid (off-grid, blocked, or self-intersecting). Hard symmetry discards these placements entirely.
| Symmetry | Example Solution |
|---|---|
| None |  |
| Reflective |  |
| Rotational |  |
| Soft vs Hard Symmetry | Example Solution |
|---|---|
| Hard Symmetry | |
| Soft Symmetry |  |
- Number of Solutions - Set how many distinct solutions the solver should generate before stopping. The solver will attempt to find multiple unique layouts that meet the specified parameters (note - this is significantly faster than generating multiple times, around ~50% extra time for 10 solutions instead of 1). After generating, you can cycle through the different solutions using the left and right arrow buttons above the result display. If less unique solutions exist than the number requested, the solver will return all unique solutions.
- Show Cooler Snake - toggle the visibility of the cooler snake on the grid.
Note: cooler snake generation is an early feature and often lacks redundancy in the path - it is recommended to tweak it once in-game.
Access additional settings in the Settings menu:
-
Thread Count - Adjust the number of threads used for solving. More threads can speed up solving, especially for larger grids and higher clip counts, but will increase CPU usage.
-
Max Time - Set a maximum time limit for the solver to run. If the solver exceeds this time, it will stop and return the best solution found so far.
-
Early Stop Heuristic - Enable an experimental heuristic that can significantly reduce solve time in some cases by stopping early when a solution is found that meets certain criteria. In testing this reduced solve time by around 40% on average with a ~5% chance of missing the optimal solution.
-
Default Export Clip/Loader Length - Set the default clip and loader lengths for exported blueprints using 3 and 4-clip tetris.
-
Default Export Stack Height - Set the default stack height for exported blueprints using 5-clip tetris.
-
Export Name Template - Set a default naming template for exported blueprints. You can use the following tokens in the name template, which will be replaced with the corresponding values from the generated solution:
{width}- Grid width{height}- Grid height{clips}- Tetris type (3, 4, or 5){count}- Block count in the solution{targetHeight}- Target height for export
Example:
APS_{width}x{height}_{clips}clip_{count}blocks_{targetHeight}h→APS_8x8_4clip_32blocks_5h.blueprint -
UI Scale - Adjust the scale of UI elements for better visibility on high-DPI displays.
While solving, the UI shows elapsed time and allows you to cancel the solve if you made a mistake on a long running solve.
When the solver finishes, it shows the final cluster count, solution status, time taken, and enables the export button.
Statuses include:
- Optimal - The solver proved that the solution is optimal.
- Likely Optimal - The early stop heuristic was triggered, so the solver stopped before proving optimality. Small chance that a better solution exists.
- Density Target Met - The solver found a solution that meets the specified target density.
- Timed Out - The solver exceeded the maximum time limit. The best solution found so far is returned, but it may not be optimal.
- Cancelled - The solve was cancelled prematurely by the user and no solution was returned.
When a solution is ready, press the Export Blueprint button to open the export dialog:
The export dialog shows total material cost. Select the clip/loader length for 3/4-clip or stack height for 5-clip, change the export name from the default template if you want, select what additional layers to include, and press Export to save the .blueprint file. If this is the first time you're exporting, you may want to set the Save Location to your FTD prefab folder so the file is saved in the correct location for immediate use in-game (press browse and navigate to your FTD prefab folder).
…/From The Depths/Player Profiles/{username}/PrefabsVersion2/
The generated blueprint should now be available in-game. If you can't find it, check that it was saved in the correct prefab folder, and try refreshing the prefabs folder by clicking the refresh button in the FTD prefab browser.
- Enforcing symmetry usually reduces compute time, at the slight risk of missing better asymmetric solutions.
- 3-clip solves much faster than 4-clip and 5-clip.
- Hard reflexive symmetry (Horizontal or Vertical) is recommended for 5-clip. Rotational symmetry is not recommended for 5-clip as it interferes with optimal arrangements.
- 180° rotational symmetry is recommended for 4-clip with the center hole template.
- If you find that you don't like the generated solution, try changing the number of solutions to generate and see if you get a different layout you prefer. Generating multiple solutions is much faster than generating multiple times and is guaranteed* to give you unique layouts that meet the same parameters.
* : Can produce the same solution in some cases when target density is set to less than 100% - otherwise, all solutions will always be unique.
If less unique solutions exist than the number requested, the solver will return all unique solutions and stop.
Contributions are welcome!
- Report Issues: Open an issue on the GitHub Issues tab with as much detail as possible.
- Submit Pull Requests:
- Fork the repository.
- Create a branch for your changes.
- Make and commit your changes.
- Open a PR against the main branch with a clear description.
For development, you'll need .NET 10 SDK and familiarity with Avalonia UI - the project uses Avalonia 11 for its cross-platform desktop UI.
- Thanks to the developers of CryptoMiniSat especially @msoos for their powerful SAT solver, which APS Generator uses for the bulk of the heavy computational lifting. The pull request containing modifications I needed for certain features was merged, so this project now points to the main CryptoMiniSat repo :)
- Thanks to sascha on Stack Overflow for their answer on a polyomino grid-packing question that served as the basis for the core solving logic.
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.